Accent, a world leading semiconductor supplier of communications and
metering technologies, announced today the introduction of its ASMgrid2TM
Reference Designs to the company's comprehensive set of hardware and
software tools. The three new designs showcase the full communication
capabilities of ASMgrid2's industry-leading integration in
complete system configurations required for wired and wireless smart
meters. As a result, smart meter equipment vendors can directly take the
proven designs to production for unprecedented bill-of-material (BOM)
reduction with future-proof technology supporting the latest standards.

All additional communication system components have been incorporated as
would be required in a production optimized ASMgrid2-based
smart meter. The ASM201 Reference Design features an extremely cost
optimized total BOM, by incorporating a ZigBee PA, SDRAM, and SPI Flash
to the device's world-leading integration, which includes a
high-performance ARM926EJ-STM, industry-best 10,000:1 Class
0.2 metrology solution (AEMETTM), and ZigBee radio with
modem. The design provides a scalable smart meter application and
communications platform with integrated home-area-network support. As a
result, emerging communication standards, such as ZigBee IP and SE2.0,
and additional software-based meter capabilities can be seamlessly
incorporated.

For near-area-network (NAN) RF-mesh communication, Accent offers the
ASM211 Reference esign, which can be directly coupled with the ASM201
Reference Design enabling a complete and powerful dual RF-mesh system.
The device integrates the industry-only complete 802.15.4g radio and
modem solution (Accent's SUNFXTM-4G) supporting FSK and OFDM
options for up to 800 kbps performance. The design achieves a minimum
total BOM in a tiny 3cm x 3cm form-factor and includes a separate PA to
provide up to 30 dBm (News - Alert) (1 Watt) output power.

The ASM221 Reference Design incorporates a full PLC-based,
standard-compliant smart meter communication system specifically
designed to enable industry-best low-cost BOM and utilizing the device's
CortexTM-M3 processor, AEMET metrology solution, embedded
Flash, and SUNFX-PLC modem + AFE for G3/PRIME/P1901.2 support.
Additional system functions include line driver, current transformer,
and PA sections. The ASM221-based system enables significant cost
savings via its function integration while also providing uncompromised
flexibility and scalability needed by this market space.

The ASMgrid2 Reference Designs are available now,
including schematics, layout files, and Gerber files. The ASMgrid2
product family is also supported by Accent's comprehensive software
offering that includes respective MACs, protocol stacks, and reference
application software.

Accent will be demonstrating its ASMgrid2 solutions at the
Metering, Billing/CRM Europe Show (Booth D05) starting October 9th.

About Accent

Founded in 1993, Accent (www.accent-soc.com)
is an ISO 9001:2008 certified world leading semiconductor supplier of
communications and metering technologies for the Smart Grid industry.
The company is backed by renowned investors such as Sofinnova Partners
and Tallwood Venture Capital. Accent is a worldwide operation with
offices in Italy, China, France, and United States. Accent's ASMgrid
product families integrate the widest technology breadth
supporting current and future Smart Grid standards to provide equipment
manufacturers off-the-shelf standard products plus complete software
platforms for rapid time to market and significantly lowered production
costs.